Cover Story: Ian Falconer’s New York Lady

The older, well-dressed lady on this week’s cover, “Stiff Competition,” by Ian Falconer, has made many appearances since her début in The New Yorker in 1996 (see the slideshow below). For Falconer, she’s “a bit like my grandmother, who always wore one of her suits. She’s a certain type of New York lady, always well pulled together and very elegant. She’s got that blonde hair with a black bandeau and big black round glasses. She may have settled on a look that suits her, but she’s always a little bit alarmed at the modern world. You see her in New York and in Paris, but you don’t really see her in London… and certainly not in Los Angeles.”

Falconer goes on: “The interesting thing to me is that the traditional Chanel suit was of course designed to free women from all the corsets. It was the most modern thing… and yet it’s utterly timeless. It looks just as good now on a young woman—Chanel was a genius.”

“Something in the Air,” by Ian Falconer, September 16, 1996.
“Christmas Cheer,” Sketchbook by Ian Falconer, December 16, 1996.
“The Thrill of the Theatre,” by Ian Falconer, June 8, 1998.
“Art Appreciation,” by Ian Falconer, November 23, 1998.
“Down the Hill,” by Ian Falconer, January 25, 1999.
“A Whiff of Sin,” by Ian Falconer, January 21, 2002.
“Wrong Floor,” by Ian Falconer, November 22, 2004.